A frequency comb is a structured light source that emits multiple frequencies simultaneously, resembling the teeth of a comb on a spectrogram. Researchers in Michal Lipson's lab developed high-power chips utilizing multimode laser diodes to create these frequency combs, enhancing technologies like LiDAR. This innovation allows for the transmission of numerous data streams without interference, significantly improving data robustness and reducing echo distortion. The findings are documented in the paper "High-power electrically pumped microcombs" published in Nature Photonics (2025).
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https://phys.org/news/2025-10-powerful-precise-multi-lasers-chip.htmlA frequency comb is a special type of light that contains many colors lined up next to each other in an orderly pattern, kind of like a rainbow. Dozens of colors—or frequencies of light—shine brightly, while the gaps between them remain dark.
When you look at a frequency comb on a spectrogram, these bright frequencies appear as spikes, or teeth on a comb. This offers the tremendous opportunity of sending dozens of streams of data simultaneously. Because the different colors of light don't interfere with each other, each tooth acts as its own channel.
A few years ago, researchers in Michal Lipson's lab noticed something remarkable. They were working on a project to improve LiDAR, a technology that uses lightwaves to measure distance. The lab was designing high-power chips that could produce brighter beams of light.
"As we sent more and more power through the chip, we noticed that it was creating what we call a frequency comb," says Andres Gil-Molina, a former postdoctoral researcher in Lipson's lab.
The breakthrough started with a simple question: What's the most powerful laser we can put on a chip?
The team chose a type called a multimode laser diode, which is used widely in applications like medical devices and laser cutting tools. These lasers can produce enormous amounts of light, but the beam is "messy," which makes it hard to use for precise applications.
Integrating such a laser into a silicon photonics chip, where the light pathways are just a few microns—even hundreds of nanometers—wide, required careful engineering.
I imagine a monochromatic source is modulated by a number of sub-carriers, each with its own data stream. It wouldn't be hard to make the subcarrier frequencies harmonically related to produce a comb. That could make demodulation easier, too.tech99 said:How would the individual lines in the comb be modulated with different data streams? As you may know, the technique is used for digital TV and mobile phones. By splitting a high speed data stream into many parallel ones, the system becomes much more robust and insensitive to echo distortion.
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